Passenger in Palatka plane crash Friday dies

VIDEO: Two Palm Coast men are in the hospital after a crash landing in Palatka. The Cessna went down in the parking lot of a Lowe’s store less than a half mile from the airport where the pilot was planning to end.

PALATKA -

The passenger in a after a single-engine plane that crashed Friday morning near the Palatka airport died Friday night. The pilot remains hospitalized.

Authorities are trying to figure out what cause the planed to go down about 1,500 feet from the runway at Kay Larkin Field.

The Florida Highway Patrol said Friday both the pilot and passenger in the Cessna 400 were flown by air ambulance to UF Health/Shands in Gainesville, where the passenger died about 10:30 p.m.

The FHP identified the pilot as 73-year-old Richard Carrara and the passenger as 71-year-old Malcolm Clevenstine. Both are Palm Coast residents.

"The passenger was non-responsive to me as far as anything verbal," Palatka Police Cpl. Todd Davis said. "He did make some movements for a second.I don't know if he was responsive to what I was asking him or humanity (was) kicking in."

Troopers say the plane had just completed a touch-and-go on the runway about 10:50 a.m when the engine stalled and it crashed into the edge of a retention pond behind the Lowe's. The plane then struck a grassy embankment, went through a chain-link fence, hit a concrete support beam and slid into a stack of pallets.

No one on the ground was injured, but investigators said the plane might have made it all the way into the building if the beam had not slowed the momentum of the plane.

The FHP says the plane, owned by Carrara, took off from St. Augustine earlier Friday morning. According to FAA records, the 2008 aircraft had its last airworthiness check three years ago.

Troopers estimated damage to the plane at $25,000.

Palatka police, the Putnam County Sheriff's Office and Florida Highway Patrol were holding the scene until the National Transportation Safety Board and FAA arrived to take over the investigation.

Copyright 2014 by News4Jax.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Comments

The views expressed below are not those of News4Jax or its affiliated companies. By clicking on "Post," you acknowledge that you have read the Terms of Service and your comment is in compliance with such terms. Readers, please help keep this discussion respectful and on topic by flagging comments that are offensive or inappropriate (hover over the commenter's name and you'll see the flag option appear on right side of that line). And remember, respect goes both ways: Tolerance of others' opinions is important in a free discourse. If you're easily offended by strong opinions, you might skip reading comments entirely.